Giuliani downplays Iran sanctions case against Turkish man

NEW YORK (AP) — Rudy Giuliani is citing national security as good reason to downplay the criminal case brought against a prominent Turkish businessman who is now the former New York mayor's legal client.

The businessman, Reza Zarrab, 33, of Istanbul, is charged with helping Iran evade U.S. sanctions by conspiring to process hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of financial transactions for Iranian businesses or Iran's government from 2010 to 2015.

Zarrab, who has pleaded not guilty, is a well-known personality in Turkey partly because he's married to Turkish pop star and TV personality Ebru Gundes. He has been held for the last year without bail.

In papers unsealed late Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, Giuliani and former Attorney General Michael Mukasey — who also has joined Zarrab's defense team — said that senior U.S. and Turkey officials are receptive to resolving the case and that an agreement could promote U.S. security.

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Giuliani and Mukasey said in separate affidavits they were hired "principally although not exclusively on an effort to determine whether this case can be resolved as part of some agreement between the United States and Turkey that will promote the national security interests of the United States and redound to the benefit of Mr. Zarrab."

Giuliani and Mukasey met recently with Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after notifying Attorney General Jeff Sessions and federal prosecutors that they planned to do so in late February, when Preet Bharara still headed the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan. Bharara was fired in March when he refused to resign along with other federal prosecutors appointed before Donald Trump became president.

Giuliani said further meetings or conversations with senior officials of the governments of the U.S. and Turkey were anticipated.

In identical language, Giuliani and Mukasey said in their affidavits that "none of the transactions in which Mr. Zarrab is alleged to have participated involved weapons or nuclear technology, or any other contraband, but rather involved consumer goods." They also noted that Turkey is "in a part of the world strategically critical to the United States."

At a court hearing this month, Assistant U.S. Attorney Dennis Lockard expressed concern that the defense lawyers' efforts were "intended to affect these proceedings."

Giuliani and Mukasey defended their work, with Mukasey writing that Judge Richard M. Berman "should treat most seriously any apparent effort to subvert an entirely lawful and not at all unprecedented attempt by Mr. Zarrab's lawyers to pursue a state-to-state resolution of this case."

The court papers, dated April 14, were filed after Berman asked questions about the role Giuliani and Mukasey are playing in Zarrab's defense and who was paying for their representation. The lawyers said Zarrab was paying their fees.

The judge has noted that Giuliani's law firm is a registered agent of Turkey, and both men work for firms that have represented banks in the case.

On Thursday, Bharara cited a story by The New York Times about the court filing in a tweet, saying: "One just hopes that the rule of law, and its independent enforcement, still matters in the United States and at the Department of Justice."